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Comment by crooked-v | Hacker News Reader

Huh, so Indian media has misery-porn-framed-as-supposedly-uplifting-news stuff too.

Maybe the reason some Asians are successful given the opportunities is because such stories are thought of as uplifting instead of lamenting against the system. The system is bad but what's wrong with celebrating and finding inspiration from people who beat it?

Adding model minority rhetoric to misery porn isn't going to make things better...

It's strange because if Asians are so successful why are so many people around me in Asia destitute? :sweat_smile: I could have sworn my country still faces poverty on a level unknown in the Western world for almost a century.

They made half of a good point though

Oh, by the truckload. The more the misery, the more the misery porn. A few weeks after the lockdown started, there was a story about a ~13 year old girl pulling her injured father on a cart with her bicycle ~1000km home to their village. The Indian Cycling Federation offered her cycle training, and it trended on Twitter.

What you're calling misery is literally just life for half of the world.

There's a difference between recognizing hardship and celebrating it as if it were a good thing, and the American variety of dystopic 'uplifting' news generally does the latter.

Some people complain about the system, some people take action and improve their lives however they can.

Sure, "we" should fix the system, but good luck waiting around for that to happen.

Is it really that? Can a native speaker give context?

I didn't read and don't want to spread misinformation. Disregard.

It wasn't a medical exam. This was a school exam; I didn't get all the context, but probably a placement/entrance exam.

No, the 10th class exams are high school graduation. This is incredibly competitive, and the grades you get here will affect what jobs, trade schools and colleges you get access to.

It wasn't about medical treatment. He was taking his son for a school test so that he wouldn't have to waste a year. Education is critical to climbing out of poverty there.

Also this isn't a normal situation. They usually take a bus or train, but public transportation is shutdown because of covid which is why they traveled on a bike.

My mistake. Was trying to translate (and very clearly didn't read).

GP or the author of the article? I understand what the article meant (it was a school exam btw), I just didn't know if it was being presented as a sad story or an "uplifting news". It's impossible to tell from the translation.

Yes. It was presented as poor person does this, overcomes massive difficulties, while the govt doesnt address difficulties, etc.

I can read Hindi

Sorry - I didn't read the article - I was mostly trying to translate what (I incorrectly thought) the person you responded to was trying to say. I apologize.

The system is actually very insensitive towards such people and guess what? When these people struggle hard, clear all test - they go for robbing the nation with corruption and their justification for that has always been "when I was struggling and poor, no one came to my rescue now it's my turn and I deserve all the money accured through corruption" and it creates more poverty.

Poor people don't study to join Google or Facebook in India. They study for government jobs like customs officer, railway officer, Indian adminstrative service, Indian Police Service etc... all jobs where you can accure vast sums of money.

The amount of money these officers make offrecord is going to eyewater even westerners. In some cases, the wealth they posses rival even high end executives at Google and Facebook.

Most people understand and acknowledge this system. They know the only way to out is through it, they stay in system - stay hard, make connections then proceed to benefit from corrupt system.

Do you know a lot of civil service officers? Because you seem to think that the ranks of the Union public services are mostly filled with highly corrupt officers who were born into poverty. Whereas the truth is that although I know some officers who were the first to get a degree or a high school certificate in their family, I also know of many more officers who come from the upper class, and even some who've been in colonial administration for generations.

>Do you know a lot of civil service officers?

Not saying most are corrupt but my experience with customs department, tax department etc... made me realize how corrupt they are.

Which does not refute the point I am making because a few corrupt people are enough to take down the system.

Ah yes, see the FB group "This isn’t wholesome, this is the Capitalist Dystopia" [1] for more examples of this in the US.

[1]: https://www.facebook.com/groups/709692249462801/

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